


Your Princess Is in Another Castle

by cleflink



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Video Games, Arcades, Bad Guys don't have to be bad, Cameos, Crossover, Jensen is antisocial, M/M, Mentions of video game violence, Video Game Mechanics, Wooing, Wreck-It Ralph - Freeform, prejudices
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-13
Updated: 2013-02-13
Packaged: 2017-11-29 03:33:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/682253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleflink/pseuds/cleflink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's not easy being a video game Bad Guy. Luckily, Jared is awesome and everyone likes him anyway. Now all he has to do is convince the attractive, antisocial Good Guy from the arcade's newest First Person Shooter that being a Bad Guy isn't a bad thing. And that they should totally date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your Princess Is in Another Castle

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt [Wreck-It Ralph](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck-It_Ralph) for the February 2013 round of [j2_everafter](www.j2-everafter.livejournal.com). Cameos aside, it should not be necessary to know anything about video games to enjoy this story.

Jared was a Bad Guy.

Of course, he wasn't actually a _bad_ guy; he didn't steal things or litter or kick Nintendogs or whatever. He was the single-player mode semi-final boss character of the arcade game _Dragon Fighter_. Being a Bad Guy was part of the job description.

It was a pretty good gig, really. The hours at _Litwak's Arcade_ were reasonable and Jared's workload wasn't too heavy. He liked what he did and the players who got as far as him were usually good enough that he didn't have to pull all his punches to give them a fighting chance. He was a playable character in two-player mode, which help blur the line between Good and Bad, and he got on well with the rest of his gamemates - even Misha, who didn't really talk to anybody.

The biggest problem with being a Bad Guy, really, was the stigma that came with it. There was this idea that all Bad Guys were _bad_ guys, even when they weren't on the clock. And yeah, some Bad Guys tended were kind of grumpy, but it wasn't like they were the only ones - anyone who'd ever talked to Pac-Man before his first cherry of the day would hardly be able to claim that Good Guys were always paragons of good cheer. 

Personally, Jared thought that any character who got treated the way Bad Guys did had the right to be at least a little grumpy about it.

Jared was lucky to live in an arcade where Bad Guys weren't actually treated too poorly. It wasn't a Bad Guy utopia by any stretch of the imagination - characters still tended to scurry out of Jared's way if he surprised them and the Surge Protector stopped him for random security checks far too often for them to actually _be_ random - but there'd been a thing a couple of years ago with the Bad Guy from one of the retro platformers which had really done a lot for Bad Guy rights. Jared had to say that he approved. 

And, honestly, Jared had always had an easier time of it than most. Making friends wasn't as hard for Bad Guys in ensemble games and Jared was a sociable, easy to get along with sort of character. Over the years, he'd developed a reputation for being friendly, a little dorky and not-at-all frightening, which was pretty impressive considering he ripped off people's arms and drank their blood at his day job. 

Of course, all the good press in the world didn't help much when it came to new games. All characters arrived at the arcade with their anti-Bad Guy prejudices already in place - it was a programming thing, Jared figured - and it sometimes took a while to get them to warm to him. 

Which meant that Jared's less than stellar first meeting with Jensen from _Demon Slayer Pro_ was totally not Jared's fault.

\---

Jared first heard of _Demon Slayer Pro_ from Chris, _Dragon Fighter_ 's quarter final boss.

"We've got a new game in the arcade," Chris told Jared while they were warming up. The arcade was due to open in a few minutes, and they'd all learned the hard way that it made for a damn long day when they didn't stretch ahead of time. "Arrived last night."

"Yeah?" Jared ducked under the sweep of Chris' leg and retaliated with a quick fire punch. "What genre?"

"First Person Shooter." Chris' next jab caught Jared on the chin and Jared stumbled back, tasting blood on his tongue. 

"Again?" Jared asked. "We've already got five FPS consoles. What's it called?"

" _Demon Slayer Pro_. Some kind of horror slash fest." Chris shrugged. "They're probably trying to go high def for _House of the Dead_ fans."

"Sounds like," Jared agreed, both because it sounded plausible and because it was never worth disagreeing with a character whose finishing moves included ripping off a guy's leg and beating him to death with it. "When's it getting plugged into Game Central Station?"

"Today, apparently. Litwak's probably setting it up as we speak."

"Cool." Jared knocked Chris back with a double-handed strike to his chest. "I'll have to go say hi after work." 

Chris snorted, not unkindly. "Of course you will. Sissiest Bad Guy ever, man."

Jared made a rude gesture at him. "Jackass."

"Two minutes!" Danneel called from where she was watching the arcade through the console screen. "Beth and Jared, you're up!"

"Got it! Later, man," Jared said to Chris, then jogged over to join Beth for the _Insert Coin_ demo screen.

Another day, another few dozen fights to the death. 

\---

The day passed much like any other and Jared found his thoughts idly skipping to the new game when it wasn't his turn to fight. He couldn't quite see the _Dragon Slayer Pro_ console from their screen, but he hoped that all of its characters were doing okay. A game's first month or so on the job tended to be a trial by fire; all the players in the arcade wanted a chance to try it out and the characters were lucky if they got a few minutes to breathe between one Game Over and the next Game Start. 

Jared remembered his own hell month as a dizzying whirl of back-to-back-to-back fights and meeting all sorts of new characters who generally didn't like him. Not all characters would be having trouble with the latter, but Jared always liked to make sure that all new characters met at least one friendly face in the off hours.

"I'm going to go meet the new neighbours," Jared told Chris after the arcade had closed for the day. "You coming with?"

Chris waved a hand. "You go ahead, boy scout. I'm off to the beach zone for some R&R."

Jared shrugged. "Suit yourself, Mr. Antisocial."

"More than you will!" Chris yelled after him.

A couple of Jared's other gamemates were also headed to Game Central Station and Jared chatted easily with them as they boarded the rail cars at their end of the power cord. Electricity hummed through the air and the cars jolted into motion, plunging into the cord with a painful screech of wheels. Sparks crackled and burned around them and Jared leaned easily out of the way of a bolt that tried to light his hair on fire; he'd had plenty of years to get used to that particular hazard. 

After a short trip, the rail cars trundled up to the platform at the other end of the line. Jared walked with his gamemates as far as the gate to _Dragon Fighter_ before waving goodbye and heading off on his own. As he went, Jared let his stride shift into a casual sort of shuffle and teamed it up with slouched shoulders and his hands in pockets to make sure he looked as nonthreatening as possible. The adjustments were instinct as much as anything these days; a Bad Guy could only get so far on a nice smile and a good personality.

Game Central Station was the hub of all activity in the arcade. It provided the electricity that powered the consoles and provided a neutral space for characters from different games to spend time together. The power cords from all the games in the arcade were hooked up to individual gates that allowed characters to access the station and also gave characters the ability to wander into each other's games, regardless of genre, bit rate or decade. That wasn't always the best idea, though. First of all, it was rude to go into someone else's game without asking. Secondly, not all games were particularly outside character friendly.

Jared died on a very regular basis at _Dragon Fighter_. It was a fighting game, after all; there was something wrong with the world if he wasn't getting his heart ripped out or his face eaten every hour or so. Things weren't so easy off-game. Jared could recover from literally anything while in his own console, but if he ever managed to get himself killed in someone else's game it'd be a permanent Game Over for him. Most games weren't particularly dangerous after hours, thankfully, but the last thing any character wanted was to put their whole game Out of Order by dying unexpectedly and not being on-game when the arcade opened the next day.

Game Central Station was buzzing with activity as Jared made his ambling way towards the new game's gate. He got hailed by a handful of characters along the way and had to fend off several invitations to spend the evening in one game or another. Everyone was good-natured about his refusal; his habit of greeting newcomers was pretty well known by now.

A decent number of characters were already milling about in front of _Demon Slayer Pro_ 's gate by the time Jared got there; some of them were there to greet the new characters like Jared was and the rest were obviously from the game itself. There was a large crowd of characters off to one side that Jared immediately identified as Bad Guys. All humanoid, from the looks of it, though Jared wouldn't have been surprised if the boss characters were more obviously demonic-looking - First Person Shooters weren't especially subtle with their big Bads.

Jared angled himself towards the closest ones; he was happy to greet anyone who wanted to be greeted by him, but he knew that the new Bad Guys would be getting considerably less attention than their Good gamemates and he didn't want anyone feeling left out. 

He'd only managed a half dozen steps in the right direction when a triple row of Tetris blocks careered deliberately into his path, tripping him before he'd even realized what was happening. Jared yelped, arms pinwheeling in vain, and the smack when he hit the floor rang out like a gunshot. Heads swiveled towards him and Jared was entirely unsurprised when laughter burst out all around him. He pushed himself upright, rubbing at his sore nose.

"Guys!" he protested, twisting round to throw an aggrieved look at the Tetris blocks. "Was that really necessary?"

Jared had yet to figure out if Tetris blocks could actually talk, but it was surprisingly easy to read their body language, considering they were composed entirely of eight-bit cubes. Right now, they were all looking amused and very, very smug.

Jared kicked out a leg, sending the remains of the wall scattering across the floor. "Jerks. See if I ever let you win at _Pong_ again."

The Tetris blocks skittered off, laughing only as polygons could, and Jared let his head thunk back to the floor with a heavy sigh. So much for making a good first impression.

"So," a female voice said above him and Jared tilted his head back to see one of the new Bad Guys standing over him. "It's not just the Good Guys who get into it round here, huh?"

Jared blinked, momentarily nonplussed, then realized what that display must have looked like to all the newbies: typical bully the Bad Guy behaviour.

"Nah," he said, wanting to get that commiserating expression off her face. "They're just getting me back for making them look bad in front of the Bust-A-Move balls last week. Happens all the time." Jared rolled to his feet and took a quick moment to brush the dirt off his jeans before holding out one gloved hand. "Hi, I'm Jared, from _Dragon Fighter_. Welcome to _Litwak's Arcade_."

"Genevieve," she said in return. Her hand practically vanished in Jared's much larger one, but her grip was firm, confident. "From _Demon Hunter Pro_. Nice to meet you."

Up close, Jared could see that Genevieve's eyes were pitch black from corner to corner and shone slick like oil. It was a little shocking, as far as game specifics went, mostly because she looked entirely standard in every other way. 

Then again, Jared had green hair. He wasn't exactly one to talk about strange design details.

Genevieve was slim, dark-haired, dressed in denim and leather, and _really_ high def. Jared's game wasn't exactly a slouch in the looks department, but it always gave him that little twinge of self-consciousness to see how 'real' graphics had become in the years since _Dragon Fighter_ had been released.

Jared firmly told his bruised vanity to put a lid on it, and offered Genevieve a smile. "So how was your first day?" he asked.

"Good," Genevieve said, sounding more like she'd hadn't quite made up her mind about it than like she was trying to convince herself it was true. Which was good. "Busy."

"Nothing quite like being the new game in town to keep you on your toes," Jared agreed. "Everyone around here treating you okay so far?"

Genevieve shrugged. "As well as you'd expect. It's an FPS so we've got a big Bad Guy cast and too many Bad Guys in the room always makes the Good Guys a little nervous."

"We've got a Bad Guy support group that runs on Wednesdays if any of you guys want to join," Jared offered. "And Bowser from _Super Mario Brothers_ hosts a poker night once a month. Everyone's pretty nice here, though, so you don't need to worry about sticking to Bad Guy only events if you don't want to."

Genevieve arched an eyebrow. "Really."

"Really," Jared promised. "Wait till you see the mixer parties the _Dance Dance Revolution_ guys throw. Last time Cyril from _House of the Dead_ ended up doing the waltz with Princess Daisy from _Super Mario Brothers_. They were actually pretty good, except for the way Cyril's one arm kept falling off."

That made Genevieve laugh. "I'll have to take your word for it."

"Usually a good idea."

An awkward sort of silence fell between them, and Jared cast about for a lighter topic of conversation.

"So hey, you're probably hungry after your first day. Fancy a trip to _Burger Town_? Best food this side of _Pac-Man_."

"You mean the only food this side of _Pac-Man_ ," Genevieve said, amused. She cocked her head curiously. "Is this you asking me to dinner?"

Jared nodded. "You and whoever else wants to come, yeah. The food's good and it's always busy at this time of night, so I can introduce you guys to some of your new neighbours while we're at it."

Genevieve's expression shifted. "Ah. So you're the Bad Guy welcoming committee, huh?" she asked, in a tone that Jared couldn't quite read.

"More like the everybody welcoming committee," Jared said. He grinned sheepishly. "It's usually only the Bad Guys who take me up on it, though."

"Fair enough. I'll go round up the gang, then?" Genevieve said after a beat. 

"The more the merrier," Jared agreed. 

Genevieve nodded and headed towards the closest group of Bad Guys. Jared's gaze skipped across the crowd, which had thinned considerably while they'd been talking, and he found his attention caught by a Good Guy standing by himself against the wall, watching the goings-on around him with a distant expression that Jared wasn't used to seeing on Good Guys.

The Good Guy was tall, fit and high def in all the best ways. He was wearing army pants, shit kicking boots and a battered black shirt with an under arm holster strapped on over it. Jared couldn't even begin to try and identify the type of gun he was packing - Misha fought with guns, but he was mostly a robot so it wasn't like he had standard equipment - but it looked plenty impressive regardless. 

"Hope they have enough room for two dozen or so," Genevieve said as she returned. Her tone wasn't as joking as it could have been when she added, "and that the management doesn't panic and throw us out."

"It'll be fine," Jared told her. "I promise. Who's that over there?"

"Hmm?" Genevieve turned to look. "Oh, that's Jensen."

"What's he all by himself for?"

Genevieve shrugged. "He's like that."

Jared blinked at her. "But he's not a Bad Guy."

"Side quest character," Genevieve said. "He doesn't get out much."

"Huh." Jared looked at Jensen, all alone in a crowd of characters. "I'll go see if he wants to come."

"He's not going to talk to you," Genevieve predicted. "Characters round here might be sort of okay with Bad Guys, but demons and demon slayers really don't get along."

Jared shrugged. "Never hurts to try."

Genevieve's expression suggested that it might, actually, but she made no effort to stop him as Jared headed over.

Jensen's eyes snapped towards him before Jared had crossed even half the distance and Jared watched as Jensen's hand strayed instinctively to the butt of his gun. It was a thoughtless gesture rather than an intentional threat, though, so Jared didn't bother to do more than keep an absent eye on it. The odds of someone trying to hurt another character off-game without a seriously good reason were practically nil.

And even if Jensen did turn out to be dangerously homicidal, well, Jared was the semi-final boss in a fighting game; he could hold his own more than well enough.

Jensen didn't say a word as Jared walked right up to him, so Jared took it upon himself to get the ball rolling. "Hi," he said.

Jensen gave him a narrow look. "You're a Bad Guy."

"Only in single-player mode." Jared stuck out a hand and smiled his best smile. "I'm Jared, from _Dragon Fighter_. Welcome to _Litwak's Arcade_."

Jensen looked at Jared's hand like there was something growing out of it. "I don't talk to Bad Guys."

"I hate to point out the obvious, but I'm pretty sure you do."

Jensen's expression didn't change. "Not for long." He pushed himself off the wall and Jared shifted to keep him from walking off, close enough to get in his way but not so close that Jensen would see it as a threat. Probably. He seemed a little touchy.

"Sorry," Jared said, before Jensen could decide to go through him. "I didn't mean to get off on the wrong foot. I just saw you here on your own and I thought you might like to join us for some food at _Burger Time_." Jared grinned hopefully. "You're even free to ditch us for someone else when we get there. I can introduce you to some of the Good Guys from _Street Fighter_ if you like; they're usually there about this time." 

"No," Jensen said.

"No, you don't want to come or no, you don't want to meet the _Street Fighter_ characters? They're really nice, I swear." Jared paused. "Well, maybe except for Blanka but he's mostly just grouchy."

"No, to all of it. You gonna get out of my way?"

"Okay," Jared said, stepping aside. "I feel kind of bad leaving you here all by yourself though. You sure you don't want me t-"

"I'm leaving," Jensen interrupted and proceeded to do just that.

"Have a good game tomorrow!" Jared called after him.

"Told you," Genevieve said, coming up behind Jared. "The job always comes first with characters like him."

"Not always," Jared said, still watching as Jensen headed back up the tunnel to _Demon Slayer Pro_. His movements were easy and economical, a sign of good programming. His ass looked pretty awesome in those pants, too.

There was a long silence behind him and Jared turned to find Genevieve looking at him with a thoughtful expression on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"There's no point in even trying, is there?" Genevieve asked.

Jared had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. "Huh?" 

"Oh, well," Genevieve sighed. "At least I found out early. You really should be more specific when inviting a girl to dinner, by the way," she said. "Don't want to get anybody's hopes up."

"Oh. _Oh_! That's, no, you're right sorry, I didn't mean to, uh… that is, I don't…"

"Like girls?" Genevieve suggested, thankfully sounding more amused than put out. "Or is it Good Guys you go for?"

"Neither," Jared admitted as he felt his cheeks heat. Jared was not meant for blushing: it didn't suit his complexion at all. "I just… don't, really."

That earned him a raised eyebrow. "You sure?" Genevieve tipped her head in the direction Jensen had gone. "Because it looks to me like you do."

"Yeah," Jared sighed. "It does, doesn't it? Damn."

\---

The next day, Jared was maybe a little distracted at work.

"-hell are you doing?" Jared heard as he sprang back to life, back in one piece and his neck aching just a little from having been ripped apart a few moments prior. "That's the fourth match today you've blown."

Jared blinked up at Aldis, who was looking at him with an expression somewhere between irritated and worried. He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry. Wasn't paying enough attention."

Aldis snorted. "Tell me something I don't know, sunshine." 

"Yo, Aldis!" Zach, the final boss, called as they shifted into the throne room zone. "Get a move on! We're on the clock, here!"

"We are not done," Aldis warned Jared, sticking one finger in Jared's face for emphasis. "I will be back to finish this conversation and don't even think that I won't resort to Extreme Measures to make you talk. Capiche?"

"Capiche," Jared said, holding both hands up in surrender. "Now get going. You know how much the players hate long loading times."

"I'll show them loading times," Aldis muttered, more out of reflex, Jared thought, than any real irritation. He loped over to the next stage to start the match, his movements turning jerky as the player took over. Jared dragged himself further off-screen and collapsed in the first open space of dirt he could find. He then proceeded to stare blankly at the sky, thinking about nothing at all.

True to his word, Aldis was back as soon as his player ran out of quarters - Jared might have been shirking his Bad Guy duties today, but Zach certainly wasn't - and the next player started with Danneel instead. His shadow loomed over Jared's prone form and Jared sat up reluctantly. 

"So," Aldis said, somehow managing to turn the one word into a sentence all of its own. "You gonna tell me what's going on?" 

"I was kind of hoping not to," Jared answered honestly. "I've got my head in the game now, promise."

"Man, I don't care if you've decided to marry a koopa trooper and go pick flowers outside Peach's palace. I wanna know what's up with you. You're kind of a spaz, but it's never affected your game before." Aldis' voice went darkly threatening. "Don't make me tickle it out of you."

Jared thought it was incredibly unfair that Bad Guys were as ticklish as anyone else. Not exactly dignified.

"You know I'll do it," Aldis warned, wiggling his fingers for emphasis.

"Fine, geez!" Jared scrubbed a hand through his hair, staring at the floor as though Aldis might miraculously cease to exist if Jared wasn't looking at him. "So yesterday I went to meet the characters from that new game, _Demon Slayer Pro_?"

Aldis nodded. "Yeah? They seem cool?"

Jared shrugged. "Yeah, more or less. Didn't really get to meet the Good Guys yet but-"

"That's pretty normal," Aldis finished. "Explain to me again why this is an issue?"

"Oh, look at that," Jared said, with patently false brightness. "The player's getting close to my zone. Guess I'd better-"

"Oh, hell no." Aldis started towards him, hands raised warningly. "You really want to do this, Jared? Cause you know I'll fuck your shit up."

Jared sighed, deflating all at once. "It's nothing. Just… there's this guy."

"Am I hearing things?" a voice interrupted and Jared groaned.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded as Danneel walked over to join them. 

"I work here, remember?" Danneel brushed the damp strands of her hair away from her face and the move put her impressive cleavage and equally impressive lack of clothing on lurid display. Jared would never understand how she and the other girls could fight in the outfits they wore without falling out. Some character designs were just silly. "My player lost to Milo. Misha's up right now. So," she said. "Who's this guy?"

"I was dealing with it," Aldis protested.

Danneel waved him off. "And now I'm helping. Well?" she demanded of Jared.

"His name's Jensen," Jared said, just a little sulkily. "He's a side quest character from _Demon Slayer Pro_."

"Good Guy or Bad Guy?" Aldis asked.

"Good."

Danneel looked at him thoughtfully. "And what does he think about Bad Guys?"

"Wouldn't give me the time of day," Jared admitted.

"Since when has that ever stopped you?" Chris asked, leaning over Aldis' shoulder.

Jared stared. "When the hell did you get here?" he demanded. "And why are you all so interested in my love life?"

"Because you've never had one," Chris said. He grinned. "Also, you just called it your love life, which automatically makes this so much more interesting."

Jared groaned and dropped his head into his hands. "I hate all of you."

"You can't hate me," Aldis said, with what Jared thought was an unnecessary amount of confidence. "I'm awesome."

"You're also up," Chris said, gesturing up at the selection screen where Aldis' picture was flashing. "That player must have been awful."

"Draw your matches out," Danneel said as Aldis turned to go. "I want some time with Jared. And tell Beth to come over, if you see her."

"Can do."

"You're welcome to stay," Danneel said to Chris. "But we're mostly going to be talking about boys."

"I really don't want to talk about boys with you," Jared said.

Danneel's answering grin was ruthless. "Tough. You're not going anywhere."

Some days, Jared thought that Danneel would make a much better Bad Guy than he did.

\---

Despite his best efforts, Jared did in fact spend the entire night talking about boys. Well, boy. It was frankly astonishing how much Danneel and the other girls found to say about Jensen considering that Jared only had five minutes worth of interaction to tell them about.

It was early in the evening when someone came up with the horrific plan of ambushing Jensen en masse, but Jared refused point blank to go off-game when they were all being so ridiculous. After telling him off for being such a pussy, a couple of the girls took it upon themselves to do some reconnaissance. They didn't find Jensen - which Jared considered the greatest relief known to arcade-kind - so instead they introduced themselves to some of the Good Guys from _Demon Slayer Pro_ and started gossiping, which was very nearly as bad.

Jensen, they learned, was a great NPC but more than a little antisocial. Alona, _Demon Slayer Pro_ 's lead character, said that he was mostly just shy and that, once he warmed up to characters, he was a really _good_ guy. Most everyone else agreed that, while that might be the case, it was pretty much impossible to get him to that stage. Jensen had actually shot a few of the characters in their game - only temporarily fatal, of course - to make them leave him alone. It had worked, unsurprisingly, and now Jensen spent most of his time by himself.

Pathetic though it was, Jared couldn't help but soak up every tidbit. Of course, the girls - and Aldis, though who knew where the fuck he'd come from - immediately started concocting plans and schemes for getting him and Jensen together. The plans ranged from subtle to outright evil, which was pretty much par for the course when Good Guys and Bad Guys worked together. Some of these plans even included maps, and Jared didn't even want to know how Beth had come up with level plans for _Demon Slayer Pro_ so quickly.

Jared gently but firmly vetoed all of their ideas, evil or otherwise. As much as he appreciated the support, this was one situation where Jared needed to do things his own way. He wanted Jensen to get to know _him_ , with all his quirks and faults, which required a personal touch.

Besides, Jared wasn't particularly keen on kidnapping as a dating technique. It had never worked out for Bowser, anyway.

\---

Of course, doing things his own way would have been a lot easier if Jared had the faintest idea of what that way was.

Jared hadn't been lying when he'd told Genevieve that he didn't do this. Sure, he'd been on dates before - set up by well-meaning friends for the most part - but they'd never amounted to much. He just… wasn't interested. 

Which was apparently a crying shame since Jared, to his own eternal surprise, had long been considered as something of a hot item in the arcade. By Good and Bad Guys alike, even, which Jared appreciated on a social equality level if not a personal one. Some of the Good Guys probably liked the illicit thrill of dating a Bad Guy without the worry of dating a _bad_ guy, Jared figured, but that didn't really explain the rest of them, or any of the Bad Guys. He suspected it was probably some kind of extension of the moderate popularity he had in the arcade; did characters look for the same qualities in a boyfriend as they did in a friend? Of course, it wasn't like it had ever mattered, anyway, since Jared had never met any character who made him want to go to the effort of dating.

Of course, now this thing with Jensen had come right out of left field and Jared didn't have any experience about how to go about this. He couldn't help but find it entirely typical that the first character he'd ever been interested in couldn't care less about him. Not that he was about to let that deter him. 

Jared was just going to do what he did best: bumble through as best as he could and hope that things turned out okay. If he was lucky, Jensen went for that kind of thing. 

\---

It was another three days after Jared's impromptu 'girls' night in' before he ran into Jensen again. Jensen was sitting a bench near one of the information kiosks in Grand Central Station, watching the goings-on around him with a bland expression that was already becoming familiar. His entire countenance threatened extreme pain to any character stupid enough to bother him.

So Jared put on a sunny grin and went over to say hello.

Jared was distantly amazed that Jensen didn't immediately leave when he saw him heading his way; he figured that Jensen was one of those Good Guys who didn't approve of tactical retreats. Jensen didn't go quite so far as to say 'you again?' when Jared reached him, but the sentiment was pretty clear all the same.

"Hi," Jared said, settling himself uninvited on the bench beside Jensen. The seat was far too low to be entirely comfortable for someone Jared's size and his knees jutted up at sharp angles, but Jared was used to that. "How was your day?"

A moment passed wherein Jared didn't think Jensen was going to answer at all, then the man huffed and uttered an impatient, "Why are you here?"

"I was looking for you," Jared said, resisting the urge to use his 'duh' voice.

"Well, you've found me. Well done. Now go away."

Jared failed utterly at trying not to find the way Jensen bristled under his attention sort of adorable. "Well, that kind of defeats the purpose of trying to find you in the first place."

"And why is that?" Jensen demanded, more than a little scathing. "Still trying to do your civic duty and make sure all us new characters feel appropriately _welcome_?"

"Actually," Jared said, unfazed. "I wanted to ask you out on a date." 

Jensen stared at him.

"With me," Jared added, in case Jensen hadn't quite got that part.

"A date," Jensen said, after several moments during which he'd apparently been shocked speechless.

"A date," Jared agreed.

"Are you _insane_?" 

"Should I take that as a yes?" Jared asked.

"Should y- no! Of course you shouldn't! What possible could reason could honestly make you think I'd-"

Jared saw the exact moment when Jensen realized that his… vocal response was attracting sideways looks. He was entirely unsurprised when Jensen's voice dropped into a hiss to finish, "go on a date with a Bad Guy?"

"I'm not so sure you'd go on a date with anybody, to be honest," Jared said. "But I was hoping you'd make an exception for me."

"Why?" Jensen demanded.

"Because I like you." Jared smiled at him. "And because I think you might like me too if you gave me a chance."

Jensen snorted. "Not happening."

"Okay." Jared climbed to his feet, feeling a little bad for the way it made him fairly tower over Jensen. Granted, he tended to tower over everyone, but Jensen didn't strike him as the sort that would appreciate it overmuch.

"Why don't I let you think about it," he said. "No need to make a rash decision. Let me know if you change your mind." He lifted one hand in a wave. "I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Jensen was looking a little shell shocked, but roused himself enough to respond with a curt, "I hope not."

Jared willed his smile even wider. "Whatever you say, Jensen. Have a good game tomorrow."

\---

It doesn't sound good, kid," Chris said, when he heard the story from Jared later. "Seems like he's too stubborn to think he might be wrong about you."

"That's okay," Jared said calmly. "I'm more stubborn than he is."

\---

"Hey, Jensen," Jared called, jogging over to where Jensen was leaning against the wall and looking as though he thought that the whole place would fall down if he wasn't propping it up. "How's it going?"

"Go bother someone else," Jensen said, barely sparing him a glance.

"Okay," Jared said easily and turned to go. 

"Wait, what?" Jensen asked, sounding thoroughly bewildered.

Jared stopped and glanced at Jensen. "What, what?"

"You're actually leaving?" Jensen asked. "Just like that?"

"Yeah," Jared said. "Why, don't you want me to?"

"No. I mean, yes, I mean, that's not what I…"

Flustered Jensen was surprisingly endearing, Jared was learning.

"Aren't you giving up too easily?" Jensen managed finally.

"Who said I'm giving up? I don't want to be rude, though. Besides," Jared added, with a grin. "There's a _Taiko Drumming_ competition on tonight that isn't going to win itself. I don't want to be late. I was going to invite you to come but," Jared shrugged. "Another day, I guess."

Jensen stared at him, brow furrowed.

Jared raised an eyebrow. "Jensen? Something wrong?"

"Nothing," Jensen said after a moment, in a tone that didn't sound convincing in the slightest.

"Right then." Jared lifted one hand in a wave. "Let me know if you change your mind. Have a good game tomorrow."

He could feel Jensen's eyes on his back as he walked away, which Jared decided to take as a good sign. And if he was grinning to himself, well, it wasn't as though Jensen could see.

\---

So Jared pretty much decided to woo Jensen with a combination of persistence and enthusiastic charm. It seemed as good a plan as any.

But it didn't take long for him to learn that Jensen wasn't exactly the easiest character in the arcade to woo.

First there was the fact that Jensen always, always turned Jared down, no matter what Jared suggested they do. 

The second issue was that, half the time, Jared couldn't even find him. 

\---

"You want to come in for a while?" Alona asked, on yet another night where Jensen had opted to stay on-game rather than come to Game Central Station. "I can help you find him, if you like."

Alona had taken to Jared gratifyingly quickly after Jared's gamemates had broken the ice with their not-so-innocent meddling. Jared found her to be thoroughly likeable in all sorts of ways - not in the least her open willingness to support his efforts with Jensen.

Jared grinned at her. "Somehow, I think there's someone who might object to that."

Alona rolled her eyes. "That someone doesn't know what's good for him."

Jared shrugged. "That's up to him." He glanced up at the ' _Demon Slayer Pro_ ' sign hanging above the gate, wondering whether Jensen had retreated to his own evel or if he was actually spending time with some of his gamemates. Jared hoped it was the latter. He spent too much time on his own.

"You really like him, don't you?" Alona asked and Jared turned back to find her watching him with quiet understanding written all over her face.

"Yeah," Jared said. "Which is why I must respectfully decline your invitation."

"You have to be the nicest Bad Guy I've ever met," Alona said and, while Jared knew it was meant to be a compliment, it was a struggle not to let his face fall. He wished he knew how to explain to Good Guys that he wasn't the exception to some kind of evil Bad Guy mould.

"Well," he said, figuring an active lesson was probably the best place to start. "In that case, I think I ought to introduce you to some more." He offered Alona his arm. "Would you care to join me on a tour of the Bad side of town?"

Alona stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"I am. We're honestly pretty likeable, you know."

Alona was silent for a moment, then let out a very deliberate breath and threaded her arm through Jared's. "So?" she said, with admirable courage. "Where to?"

Jared beamed at her. "How would you like to meet the _F-Zero X_ team?"

"I have no idea," Alona admitted. "If you think it'll go well, then go for it."

"Thank you. I promise you won't regret it." A familiar figure cut through Jared's peripheral vision and he made a split-second decision. "Let's start a little closer to home though first, yeah? Hey, Genevieve!" he called, waving her over. "You busy tonight?"

Genevieve approached warily, eyes jumping from Jared to Alona and back again. "Not yet. What's up?"

Jared had his most harmless smile ready as he silently willed Alona to agree to this. "We're heading over to _F-Zero X_ to meet Captain Falcon and the gang. You want to come?"

Genevieve hesitated. "I don't know if-"

"Come." 

Genevieve blinked, openly surprised, and Jared was privately delighted when Alona offered her a smile that was hesitant but genuine. "You should come. If you want to."

"I'd like that," Genevieve said after a moment, with a tentative smile of her own. 

The grin that split Jared's face was ridiculously broad, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. "You girls are fantastic."

"Which is apparently your fault. Care to try for another miracle tonight?" Genevieve asked, jerking her thumb over her shoulder.

Jared looked and caught sight of Jensen standing just within the _Demon Hunter Pro_ gate, watching them. He had no idea how long he'd been there.

"I think that's more of a miracle than I'm capable of," Jared said to Genevieve, raising one hand to wave. Predictably, Jensen responded by turning on his heel and disappearing back down the tunnel. 

Alona's grip tightened on Jared's arm. "I'm sorry," she said.

Jared shrugged. "Not to worry. One miracle a night is more than good enough for me." 

"There's always tomorrow," Alona offered.

"And the day after," Genevieve said dryly, which startled a grin out of Alona.

"And the day after that," Jared agreed. He held out his other arm to Genevieve, more delighted than either she or Alona could know when she took it without hesitation. "Besides, I've already got two lovely ladies' to entertain. Shall we?"

\---

Jared was careful to keep his wooing efforts constant but non-confrontational. 

There were no attempts to coerce Jensen into agreeing to a date, no embarrassingly public declarations of affection - embarrassing for Jensen, that was; Jared had never been all that bothered with dignity - , no stalking him through Game Central Station. There was maybe the _desire_ to do a little bit of stalking, even if only because Jensen worked in an FPS and he would probably be fun to stalk, but Jared could be patient when he needed to. And in this case, he definitely needed to.

\---

"We're all going out to _Tapper's_ for a couple of drinks," Jared said to Jensen, leaning around the edge of the gate to smile at him. "You wa-"

"No."

Jared allowed himself a pout that was only slightly overdone. "I haven't even told you 'we' is."

"I don't care," Jensen said, not looking at him. Jared could see the way the corner of his mouth twitched like it always did when he was unhappy and refusing to admit it.

 _Liar_ , Jared wanted to say, but he swallowed it down. "Okay. Let me know if you change your mind. Have a good game tomorrow."

\---

It wasn't in Jared's programming to be subtle. At all. It was why he was only the semi-final Bad Guy in _Dragon Fighter_ : he had a bad tendency to broadcast his combos before he threw them and, good as he was, that kind of handicap really wasn't appropriate for a final boss.

Off-game, Jared's complete lack of subtlety meant that it took essentially no time at all for the entire arcade to find out that he was crushing hard on the pretty, antisocial NPC from _Demon Slayer Pro_. 

The news prompted a variety of reactions, ranging from friendly razzing and lewd gestures from the disembodied hands from _Poker Night_ to disdain from most of the cast of _Grand Theft Auto_ \- who didn't like Jared much in the first place - and delighted cooing from the ladies from _Mortal Kombat_. As far as Jared could tell, they'd teamed up with Jared's gamemates and morphed into some sort of terrifying women fighters cheering squad. There was a fair smattering of disappointment from his not-quite fanclub, but Jared tried to ignore that. 

He also got offers of help from a surprising number of characters from other games. Which was very rarely as useful as it sounded. 

\---

"Let me talk to him for you."

"Zangief," Jared said, fighting against the urge to sigh. "I appreciate it, but that's not really-"

"I will explain to this Jensen why it is he should go outs with you," Zangief continued, as though Jared hadn't said a word. "I am very persuasive."

Privately, Jared doubted that Jensen would be very persuaded by relationship advice from a seven foot tall Russian in a loincloth. Jared knew he wasn't. "I'm not sure that's a g-"

Zangief laughed and clapped a companionable hand on Jared's shoulder that nearly sent him to his knees. He and Zangief were about the same size and always got paired up for _Dragon Fighter_ versus _Street Fighter_ pick-up games for just that reason, but Zangief's careless strength still caught Jared off guard sometimes. "Never you worry, Jared. I am always happy to help. And if Jensen does not listen, I will crush his head between thighs until he say yes."

Distantly, Jared wondered if wooing was supposed to give him a headache.

\---

If Jensen had ever shown any true objection to Jared's interests, Jared would have backed off immediately. Persistence was one thing, but harassment wasn't at all okay. Jared didn't really think it was going to be a problem, though. Jensen seemed more like someone who was a little shy, a lot wary and really bad at making friends than someone who really wanted to be left alone. 

He probably had a really tragic back story, Jared figured.

\---

"How goes the wooing?" Aldis asked, in between a vicious knee to Jared's gut and a jab to the head that Jared only barely avoided.

"Good," Jared answered, countering Aldis' next punch with his flaming fists combo. The player fumbled Aldis' next combo and Jared took advantage of the lull to grab Aldis in a headlock. "Really good."

Aldis wheezed a little as the player broke him loose. "Yeah? You finally get him to agree to a date?"

"Nope," Jared said cheerfully. "But he waited a whole half hour before telling me to go away last time."

Aldis gave him a look like he'd grown a second head. Which was totally Milo's shtick, not Jared's. "You make no sense whatsoever."

"I know," Jared said. "And that's why it's working."

Aldis shook his head and Jared set him on fire to put him and the player out of their misery.

\---

As the weeks went on and Jared continued to do nothing to justify Jensen's distrust of him, Jensen's rejections grew progressively less brusque, though no less consistent. Once or twice, Jared caught sight of Jensen watching him like he didn't know what to make of him at all. Which was progress, albeit very slow progress, which Jared wasn't going to complain about. 

\---

"We're looking for one more player for volleyball," Jared said, pointing towards the net they were setting up between two of the information kiosks. "Six to a team. You want in?"

"No," Jensen said. Normally that would have been the end of it, so Jared was surprised and pleased when Jensen cocked his head and asked, "Why are you playing in the middle of Game Central Station? Aren't there any volleyball game consoles you could use?"

"Yeah, but this is a spectator sport, which means we need spectators." Jared grinned at him. "No need to play by the rules when we're not on the clock."

"If you're not playing by the rules, why do you need another player?"

"I didn't say we needed one, I said we're looking for one. It's more fun with full teams. Helpful for the shorter characters, too."

"I'll pass," Jensen said, though the refusal didn't come out as short as it had when Jared had asked him to join their hide and seek marathon a few weeks ago.

"Okay, but you're missing out," Jared said. He winked. "I've got a wicked serve."

"Go away," Jensen said and Jared could have sworn it came out almost fond. Mostly exasperated, true, but there was definitely a hint of fond in there somewhere.

Jared fought the urge to do a victory pose. "Okay. Let me know if you change your mind."

"I won't," Jensen said. Jared could feel his eyes on him all the way across the floor.

Interactive spectator volleyball was one of Jared's favourite sports to play in his off time. Characters from all over the arcade joined in - some with more success than others, of course, but all with equal enthusiasm. There were always fewer Bad Guys than Good Guys but Jared was far from the only one representing the Bad side, which was always nice to see. 

Jared's team spent most of the evening losing, probably - it was hard to tell without proper rules - but Jared didn't really mind. The spectators were wonderfully enthusiastic: they cheered and yelled about scores and slid onto the court to save the ball and tripped players who were doing too well and generally did whatever they wanted to keep things interesting. 

At one point, Jared hoisted Tails from _Sonic the Hedgehog_ onto his shoulders to give the kid the extra boost he needed to spike the ball down hard on Sonic's head. Rings flew everywhere and Jared promptly got tackled by his own teammates because they were blocking the view. Everyone went down like a ton of blocks and the other team took the opportunity to retaliate; the ball ricocheted off the floor hard enough to take out two spectators from the baseball game at the far end of the arcade that Jared could never remember the name of. Someone in the crowd ran off with the ball - Jared didn't see who - and the match dissolved into giggles and good-natured genre slurs on all sides. Jared wormed his way out from under three of his teammates and hauled himself upright to find Jensen leaning against the wall near the _Tetris_ gate, watching them play.

Jared grinned and beckoned him over with one hand. "Come give it a try!" he yelled.

Jensen shook his head and stayed right where he was, rather than running off like he usually did when Jared caught him staring. Jared felt rather pleased about that.

"You ever going to do anything about that?" Flynn from _Tron_ asked, with a nod in Jensen's direction.

"I am," Jared said, grinning brightly, then promptly oofed when Q*bert landed on him with a surprised squawk. It looked like the game was on again.

\---

On the whole, Jared thought that things were going very well indeed.

\---

Things with Jensen finally came to a head while Jared was in the middle of an intense game of Snap with Ness and a few of the other characters from _Earthbound_. He was losing. A lot.

"You're terrible at this game," Jensen's voice said unexpectedly and Jared nearly dislocated something when he whirled to find Jensen standing a few feet away, hips and shoulders cocked akimbo as he looked at the lot of them sprawled across the floor.

"Yes, I am," Jared agreed. He pushed himself up onto his knees and waved at the cards. "You want to show these guys how it's done? You can have my spot."

Jensen shook his head. "I'll pass." A pause and then, "Why are you playing games you're terrible at?"

Jared shrugged. "Because that's what everybody wanted to play. I'm better at UNO," he confided in an undertone. "But I feel bad if I win too much."

"Uh huh," Jensen said, sounding unconvinced. His eyes were fixed on Jared's face, assessing in a way that Jared couldn't quite parse. It left Jared feeling something somewhere between nervous and buoyantly hopeful.

"So," Jared said, when Jensen did nothing but stare. "If I can't tempt you with a rousing game of Snap, was there something else you wanted to do tonight? There's a racers versus fighters football game going on, if that's more your speed."

Jensen arched an eyebrow. "If it's racers versus fighters, shouldn't you be participating?"

Jared shrugged again. "Already had a Snap tournament to play. Right guys?" he asked Ness and the others, who'd all been playing suspiciously slowly since Jensen had shown up. 

"Yeah. You have to book Jared in advance," Ness said, the cheeky brat. Jared mimed a lazy swing at him and Ness stuck out his tongue.

Jensen cleared his throat unsubtly, and Jared left off squabbling with Ness to blink up at him. "Sorry," he said. "So did you want to go? I can probably get you subbed in on the fighter team if you want to play."

"No."

"Okay," Jared said, like always. "Let me know if you change y-"

"I came looking for you for a reason, you know," Jensen interrupted. The words tumbled out fast and awkward, like Jensen had practiced them but couldn't get them to sit comfortably on his tongue.

"You came looking for me?" Jared asked, unreasonably delighted. "That's- ow!"

Jared glared at Ness, shin smarting from the kick. Ness gave him a pointed look, glanced deliberately at Jensen and made a shooing gesture.

Jared took the hint and climbed to his feet to lead Jensen off a few steps, not far enough for any sort of real privacy - which didn't really exist in Game Central Station - but enough to offer the illusion of it.

"So, um," Jared said. "Why were you looking for me?"

"Funny thing," Jensen said, in a tone that seemed to indicate the exact opposite. "I've had a lot of characters come talk to me recently. About you."

"About me?" Jared said, with a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"Oh, yes. Specifically about what a nice Bad Guy you are and how I ought to give you a chance."

Jared winced. "I told them not to do that."

"Well, clearly you did a bang up job there. _Princess Peach_ came up to me tonight to tell me that you are, and I quote, a real catch. Princess Peach!"

"Yeeah, she can be kind of pushy. Look, I'm really sorry, Jens-"

"Don't bother." Jensen crossed his arms over his chest. "Got any ideas about why the entire frigging arcade thinks we should be dating?"

"Cammy's not so keen on the idea," Jared offered. "I think she's got a crush on you."

"Jared," Jensen said warningly.

Jared stared. "You know my _name_ ," he breathed, wondering.

"It's hard to miss, considering how many times a night I hear it." Jensen sighed, defensive stance dropping. "What do you want from me?"

"To be your boyfriend," Jared said promptly. 

"Why?" Jensen looked honestly confused.

"Because I like you, remember?"

"You hardly know me."

"And whose fault is that?" Jared asked, not unkindly. "I've got to know you a little bit, you know, and I'd like to know you better. I think we'd be good together. If you'd rather be friends, I'm cool with that too," he continued. "Even though the way you've been checking me out recently makes me think you'd probably be okay with dating. Or I can leave you alone."

Jensen opened his mouth on what was clearly a disbelieving retort, but Jared cut him off with a raised hand.

"Honestly," Jared said, with all the sincerity he could muster. "You want me to stop and I'll stop. I never wanted to make you uncomfortable. I'll get everyone else to lay off, too. No muss, no fuss."

Jensen was silent, his expression unreadable.

"So?" Jared asked, heart in his throat. "What do you want from me, Jensen?" 

"You busy tomorrow?" Jensen asked suddenly, which wasn't really an answer except for the fact that it totally was.

Jared beamed at him. "Nothing I can't miss."

Jensen nodded. "Right. Here's your chance then." The curled amusement in his voice turned into a challenging smirk. "You'd better hope you impress me, Mr. Nice Bad Guy."

"Clearly I-" _already have_ , Jared was going to say, but Jensen was gone before he got the chance.

Jared stared blankly after Jensen for a long moment, then caught himself and looked back at the others, who'd given up the pretence of even pretending to play. "Uh, can I have a rain check on the game?" he asked. "I've got to-"

"It's fine," Ness said, openly grinning. "You go get ready for your _date_. You big girl."

"Jackass," Jared said absently. "Thanks."

Ness waved a hand. "Whatever. Let me know how it goes, okay? I've got a bet going with some of the guys from _Gauntlet_."

"Everyone around here is way too invested in me and Jensen," Jared said, though he couldn't muster anything even close to indignation about it. "I'll, uh, later."

The sound of Ness' laughter followed after him as Jared struck out across the station, his head whirling. He had a date. He. Had a date. With _Jensen_. He…

He needed some serious help.

Jared practically flew back to _Dragon Fighter_ , heart beating double time and nerves jangling. Danneel was chatting with Yuni and Emi from _Dance Dance Revolution_ in the yacht zone when Jared finally tracked her down.

"Danneel!" he gasped, wild-eyed and out of breath. "Help!"

"Whoa!" Danneel said. She smirked. "Where's the fire?"

"This is not the time for puns," Jared said seriously. "I'm in trouble."

Danneel's expression shifted immediately into concern. "What's wrong?"

Jared took a deep breath. "I have a date with Jensen."

Danneel made a delighted little squeal at a volume Jared hadn't known she could reach. "That's fantastic!"

"Yeah," Jared agreed, still a little numb with exultation but mostly stressed. "But I need your help. I don't know what to wear or what to say or where to go or, or anything!"

She stared at him. "You've been trying to convince this guy to go out with you for _months_ and you don't have your first date planned?"

"I wasn't really thinking about that part," Jared defended, cheeks heating. "I've never done this before!"

"You must have thought about it a little," Danneel pressed. "Or did you skip straight onto the 'until Game Over do you part' stage?"

Jared stared at her helplessly. Danneel shook her head.

"You are such an idiot," she said, but fondly. "I can help you get ready to go-"

"We'll help!" Yuni and Emi chimed in. 

"-but there's no way I'm planning your date for you."

"But-" Jared protested.

"It's your date, Jared," Danneel said firmly. "You know him better than we do. It's not that hard. Pick somewhere you'll both enjoy. Somewhere he hasn't been before."

"I don't know what-" Jared stopped mid-sentence as a thought occurred to him. "Never mind, yes I do." He spun on his heel and started jogging back towards the power cord.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Danneel called after him.

"To call in some favours," Jared yelled over his shoulder. "I'll be right back."

Jared could sense Danneel shaking her head at him but he didn't let it bother him. He had a date to plan. And it was going to kick ass.

Because if it didn't, Jared was going to cry. And that would just be embarrassing.

\---

Jared spent most of the next day positively vibrating with nerves which, if nothing else, was at least good for his win ratio.

"Dial it down a little," Beth told him as he gave her a hand up. The scent of burning flesh lingered a little in her hair, but it would fade soon enough. "I know you're excited but don't be so combo happy. The players'll stop coming if they think it's unbeatable."

"Sorry," Jared said, sheepishly. "I'm just-"

"I know," Beth said good-naturedly. "But listen up. That was my second KO, so you're off the hook until the next player Starts. Go run around in circles or something until you've burned off some of that energy, tiger."

Jared gave her a shove. "Screw you," he grumbled and Beth laughed at him as she walked off. Jared made faces at her back for a while, then sighed to himself and went to run around in circles for a while. Good advice was still good advice.

The rest of the day positively dragged, right up until Jared started getting ready, at which point it seemed to catch up to itself all at once and Jared could hardly believe where the time had gone. 

If he'd been a character in another genre of game, Jared would have had to wait until the arcade closed before heading to Game Central Station; a missing character glitch was far too easy for players to notice and they didn't want to end up Out of Order. Luckily, Jared's gamemates were awesome and they agreed to cover for him so he could slip out early. Misha did something with the game's coding to remove Jared temporarily from the roster for multi-player mode and the rest of them worked out a system of ignoring player instructions and fighting above their difficulty level to make sure that no players got to Jared's zone in single-player mode. Which wasn't particularly fair, but it was only this once and it was for a good cause.

Getting ready for his date was easier than Jared had expected. The girls from _Dance Dance Revolution_ had helped him code something to wear that was a little fancier than his normal ripped jeans and white wifebeater combo. Chris gave him some tips on how to keep his hair from looking too much of a mess, which Jared appreciated even if he refused to consider the ponytail a good fashion choice. Danneel put the final touches on Jared's outfit while Milo, of all characters, gave him a quick pep talk about calming the hell down and just being himself.

When Jared was as presentable as he was going to get, his gamemates all wished him luck and herded him off to the power cord before heading back to get ready for the next player. Jared resolved to hug the hell out of them when he got back. Right now, though, they had a game to play and he had a Jensen to impress.

Game Central Station was deserted when Jared got to Game Central Station, which was one of the most unnerving things Jared had ever experienced. Game Central Station was never empty when the arcade was closed. Jared's footfalls echoed loudly in the quiet and he felt his nerves sneaking back with every step. The call for the end of day went just as he reached the _Demon Slayer Pro_ gate, and was a relief when other characters started trickling into the station, filling in the silence.

Jared waited by Jensen's gate, feeling big and awkward and conspicuous. He wondered if he should have brought flowers. Or maybe some _Pac-Man_ cherries. Everyone liked cherries.

"Look at you, all nervous and huggable," Alona said and Jared turned to find her and Genevieve holding hands and grinning at him. They'd been nigh inseparable since Jared had properly introduced them to each other; Jared had given himself several pats on the back for that. "Can't believe I ever thought you were a _bad_ guy. "

"By which she means, your fidgeting is adorable but you shouldn't worry so much," Genevieve offered. 

Jared laughed, a little awkwardly. "Easy for you to say."

Alona gave him a fondly exasperated look. "Jared. You'll be fine. Jensen said yes, didn't he?"

"To _one_ date," Jared reminded her. "Plenty of time for him to change his mind."

"He won't. And hey," Genevieve clapped him on the shoulder. "If he turns you down, you can always join us. We're willing to share, right Alona?"

"Oh, yes," Alona said, with a decidedly wicked-looking grin.

"Ahem," a voice said then, and Jared looked round to see Jensen standing at the mouth of the gate. Jensen's clothes were similar to what he usually wore, though Jared couldn't help but notice that his black shirt was definitely new, his pants fit just a little bit more snugly and his shoulder holster was conspicuously absent. Jared was a lot more touched by the last detail than he probably should have been. "I think you'll find I've booked Jared for the night."

"Hi there," Jared said warmly. "Making me wait again, I see."

Jensen shrugged. "Thought you'd be used to it by now." His expression went almost bashful as he added, "I didn't expect you here so early."

"Cheated a little bit," Jared admitted. "Bad Guy prerogative. My gamemates helped."

"Right."

Over Jensen's shoulder, Jared saw Alona and Genevieve giving him an entirely not-subtle matched set of thumbs up and he couldn't help but grin at them. Jensen followed his gaze and rolled his eyes.

"My gamemates are conspiring against me," Jensen said, not sounding entirely put out by it.

"That's okay, they're conspiring with me," Jared said. He made a face at the pair of them. "And right now they're being kind of voyeuristic. Ready to go?"

Jensen gestured for him to go ahead. "Lead the way."

Jared waved goodbye to the girls and he and Jensen headed off into the bustle.

"Is that your fault?" Jensen asked as they walked.

"Is what my fault?" Jared asked.

"Alona and Genevieve."

Jared shrugged. "I just gave them an excuse to find out that they like each other. Doesn't usually take much, once you get past the whole Good Guy, Bad Guy thing."

Sonic and Tails called out a greeting from across the station and Jared waved back, well aware that he was grinning like a fool. He turned back to Jensen and found him staring, again. "What?"

"Nothing," Jensen said after a beat. "So what oh, so exciting activity do you have planned for tonight? Burger-eating contest? Running tour through _House of the Dead_? _Tron_ Frisbee tournament?"

"That last one is a lot of fun," Jared said. "But I actually thought we'd try _that_ one." He pointed and watched the surprise flash across Jensen's face.

" _Mario Kart_?" Jensen asked. "Seriously?"

Jared grinned. "Best idea ever or best idea ever?" 

"It's certainly something," Jensen said.

"Would you rather I start composing odes to you instead? Because I can do that. They'd be awful," Jared admitted, after a moment's thought. "But I could still do that."

"That's okay," Jensen said, and Jared was delighted when he saw the hint of a smile curve the corner of Jensen's mouth. "I trust your judgement."

A warm, cozy sort of feeling took up residence in Jared's stomach. He grinned his way through it in order to say, "You'll have a great time, I promise. I gotta warn you though, I'm a pretty good racer."

Jensen arched an eyebrow at him. "You planning on humiliating me? Cause I gotta say, that's not gonna win you any points."

"I dunno," Jared said. "You planning on letting me humiliate you?"

Jensen's eyes flashed. "Bring it on."

Jared grinned. "My pleasure." He gestured at the gate. "After you."

The characters from _Mario Kart_ were still piling out of the game when Jared and Jensen arrived at the power cord, and the pair of them earned a gratifying but slightly embarrassing number of well-wishes as they waited for the rail cars to empty.

"You sure you aren't trying to humiliate me?" Jensen asked as they waited out the crush of bodies.

"Unfortunate side effect. Come on."

They climbed into the closest rail car and settled in for the trip.

"You sure we're going to be able to find karts big enough?" Jensen asked as they flashed down the power cord. "Mario only comes up to, like, my waist. And you're even bigger than I am."

Jared grinned. "No kidding. I nearly knocked myself out with my own knee while changing gears the one time I borrowed Mario's." 

"I'm assuming you have a solution."

"Oh, Bowser and Donkey Kong said we can use theirs," Jared said, as they rattled to a stop at the other end. "Much easier."

Another crowd of characters was waiting for their turn on the rail cars and Jared and Jensen had to fend off more enthusiastic greetings as they waded their way off the platform. Jared dealt with it as hurriedly as he could and couldn't help a relieved sigh when they were finally left alone in front of Princess Peach's castle.

"Sorry," Jared said, rubbing sheepishly at the back of his neck. "I should have realized that was going to happen."

There was silence beside him, and Jared turned his head to find Jensen biting his lip uncertainly.

"Jensen?"

"Sorry," Jensen said, looking self-consciously pink. "It's just… the karts."

Jared blinked. "What about them?"

Jensen hunched one shoulder in the most uncertain display Jared had ever seen from him. "It's, ah, hard to imagine _Bowser_ lending someone else his go-kart."

It was a challenge to resist the urge to growl, but Jared managed it. Barely. "Bowser's a nice guy. You shouldn't judge him by the job, you know?"

"I'm starting to get that," Jensen said. He sounded surprisingly sincere, which did a lot to soothe Jared's irritation.

It was too late to stop the flow of words rolling out of Jared's mouth though. "We've gotten used to relying on each other. Bad Guys, I mean." Jensen probably didn't care to hear this, Jared realized, but there were some things that were worth being said. "Since it's hard to convince other characters to give us a chance. I mean, I don't have too much trouble, but well," he offered Jensen a rueful kind of smile, "you know what kind of prejudices we've got to deal with."

"Yeah," Jensen said after a moment. His expression was sober, honest. "I do."

"So!" Jared said loudly, wanting off this topic already. He couldn't help the way his smile was slightly shaky when he asked, "How am I doing with the impressing you thing so far?"

"Surprisingly well." Jensen cocked an expectant eyebrow. "Although I've never driven a go-kart before, so you'd better hope you're a good teacher."

"You leave it to me," Jared said. He grinned and felt his pulse jump when Jensen met it with a tentative smile of his own. "We'll have you zipping around like a pro in no time. We can only race on the tracks that have guard rails along the edges, though," he added. "Lakitu's helping out at _Sugar Rush_ tonight so there's no one to stop us from falling off stuff and Game Over-ing."

Jensen stared at him for a moment, then threw back his head and laughed, open and honest and amazing. Jared wanted to hear him do it again. Immediately, if possible. "I take it back. You're absolutely insane and I'm not at all impressed by a date that might get me killed."

"Yes, you are," Jared said confidently. Jensen rolled his eyes but didn't contradict him, which was awesome. "Come on then. We've got some racing to do!"

\---

The date was a resounding success, even if Jared said so himself. Most of the _Mario Kart_ characters had cleared out to give him and Jensen some privacy, and Jared found himself enjoying Jensen's company immensely once the guy relaxed enough to enjoy himself. Which was exactly what he'd been hoping for, and it was nice to know that Alona had been right about what was hiding under all Jensen's prickly reticence.

Jared had spent a not-inconsiderable amount of time in _Mario Kart_ in the past and was more than capable of guiding Jensen through the mechanics of driving. Jensen proved to be a quick study, especially for an FPS character who'd never touched anything with wheels before, and remarkably receptive to Jared's suggestions and advice. 

It wasn't long before they were out on the tracks for some friendly one-on-one races. Jensen got the hang of the stick shift in no time, but trying to fire turtle shells and drive at the same time had a tendency to make him run into hedges, cacti and, memorably, the empty stands at Luigi Stadium. That one took a while to clean up after.

Jared refused to go easy on him - well, _too_ easy - but, luckily, Jensen learned quickly enough that Jared never quite got the level of humiliating him. Mostly, Jared was very glad that Jensen wasn't a sore loser.

By the time they finally packed it in and headed back to Game Central Station, they were both windswept and rumpled and smelled more than a little of motor oil. Jared had banana in his hair and an already swelling bruise on his cheek from where he'd met the business end of a spiny shell, and Jensen wasn't looking much better. The thrum of the engine hadn't quite left Jared's veins yet and he knew his grin was more than a little manic.

"You alright there, Jared?" Jensen asked as they jolted and sparked down the power cord.

"That was _awesome_ ," Jared said, grinning a mile wide. "Wasn't that awesome?"

Jensen looked amused. "Pretty awesome," he agreed.

The rail cars rattled up to the platform and Jared jumped when a pair of gloved hands landed on his shoulders. 

"I'm not going to ask how it went because I'm sure it was wonderful," Princess Peach said. She pulled him down for a kiss on the cheek and Jared failed utterly at not blushing under the amused scrutiny of the other characters standing on the platform. "You come talk to me soon, you hear me?"

"Yes, dear," Jared parroted and ducked away from the smack she sent his way. "We've got to get back to our games," he said, climbing out of the rail car with an urgent gesture at Jensen to do the same.

"Wait!" Peach moved far faster than she should have been able to in a skirt that wide and it was Jensen's turn to flush when she took his face in her hands and dropped a matching kiss on his cheek. "I'm so happy for both of you."

"Definitely leaving now!" Jared grabbed Jensen's hand and tugged him away. "Have a good game!" he called over his shoulder.

"You too!" Peach called after them with laughter in her voice.

"Worried she's going to scare me off?" Jensen asked. His colour was still high but the tone of his voice still managed to be amused.

"Shut up," Jared muttered at him, though he didn't sound put out even to himself. "Next time I'll leave you to her mercy."

"My hero."

They exited the _Mario Kart_ gate and Jared reluctantly let go of Jensen's hand when he felt his muscles tense at the sudden scrutiny around them. 

"So," Jared said as they walked back through the station, shoulders brushing intermittently. "Still impressed?"

Jensen shrugged in a poor display of nonchalance. Maybe if he hadn't been smiling, just slightly, it would have been more convincing. "You didn't do so badly, for a Bad Guy."

"Impressed enough for a second date?" Jared pressed.

"Maybe," Jensen said, openly teasing now. He hesitated for a moment, then added, "or maybe next time I should take _you_ out."

"Yeah?" Jared asked, smiling. His whole body felt like it was sparking with energy and he wondered not-entirely absently if one of the Surge Protectors was about to come by and tell him off for overloading the circuits.

It would be absolutely worth it for the cautiously happy expression on Jensen's face. "Yeah. Course, you've probably already tried out every game in the arcade, haven't you?"

"Maybe," Jared said, in the same teasing tone Jensen had used earlier. "But don't let that stop you. I'll look forward to seeing what you pick."

They reached _Demon Slayer Pro_ 's gate and Jensen stopped, turning to face Jared. "So."

"So." Jared agreed. "Is it cliché to say that I had a good time?"

"It's a dreadful pun, if nothing else."

Jared chuckled. "Maybe. Still true."

"For me too," Jensen admitted, then shocked Jared entirely when he leaned up to press a light kiss to Jared's lips.

Jensen pulled back, looking unexpectedly shy. "That's traditional for the first date, right?" he asked.

Jared thought he might Game Over right then and there from sheer happiness. "Wow, that's, I- yes, Jensen…"

Jensen's grin broadened into something distinctly self-satisfied. "Good. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Jared nodded fervently. "Definitely. Have a good game."

"You too," Jensen said and disappeared through the gate. Jared watched him go, not caring that he was going to have to run across the station to get to work on time.

Jared's life _rocked_.

\---

The next day, Jared managed to get himself eviscerated, frozen solid, blown up - twice - and beheaded within the first two hours of the arcade opening.

"Is this you needing to be put on suicide watch, or what?" Aldis asked. "Cause I gotta say, this sort of behaviour does not suggest 'successful date' to me."

Jared's answering grin was dopey enough that not even hardcore Bad Guy haters would have been able to find fault with it. "Are you kidding? I am so totally in love, it's not even funny."

~fin


End file.
